Traveling through Pittsburgh like a Fat Kid...I Mean, Foodie

I haven't been home in nearly a week, so this may be a long post! Although my flight to Nashville was canceled, we decided to risk a road trip to Pittsburgh rather than stay in New Jersey. Not only does my best friend (you must remember Laura!) live there with her husband, but this weekend happened to include the second Friday of the month - and the second Friday of the month is always Hungarian Cultural Night at my favorite restaurant ever, Jozsa Corner - I've been waiting nearly 5 years to go back. 

We hopped in the car at 2 PM on Thursday, stopping at Quick Check to pick up some snacks.

Of course I packed my kale chips - Vampire Killer was actually not garlicky enough for me - and I picked up some apple straws, Stacy's naked pita chips, and a Skinny Girl strawberry lemonade sparkling water (to die for) - I was going to at least remain vegan in the car!

We stopped somewhere in central Pennsylvania to refuel ourselves and the car, and to book our hotel (I wanted to wait until we were halfway there because I wasn't even sure that we would make it with the snow!). The only places to eat at the rest stop were Starbucks and Burger King and Starbucks didn't have any "real" food to offer. I settled for a chicken-cranberry-apple-blue cheese salad with apple cider vinaigrette. It was okay, minus the iceberg lettuce, but I could feel my stomach bubbling before I even got back in the car. It was an uncomfortable experience, both for my stomach and my ego - I feel like I got a lot of strange looks in the nearly-deserted rest stop. It may have been my leopard rain boots. I clearly do not fit in in Pennsyltucky. 

As soon as we arrived in the PGH, after some dicey driving through the dark mountains in the snow, we settled in the room and went to meet up with Laura and her husband, Dan. They took us to Kelly's Bar and Lounge, a very dinery dive bar, where I ordered a Gardenburger (with cheese) and fries. It was absolutely delicious, but the cheese and the grease caused even more rumbling. 

The rumbles continued into Friday morning. Our hotel was under renovation, so to make up for it, they were offering a free continental breakfast. We slept through it and met back up with Laura and Dan in the early afternoon.

We had decided to check out the Carnegie Museum, but first, Laura suggested we try a new - get this - vegan/vegetarian restaurant called AVA. 

AVA had not yet had their grand opening, but rather a soft opening. The small menu made decision-making easy.

And this fresh bread with wonderful garlicky amazing dipping oil was superb.

We ordered a round of golden oat smoothies - a delicious concoction of banana, oat, almond milk, turmeric, and cinnamon - that is meant to serve as a meal, but which turned into appetizers for us. I will definitely try to replicate this at home because it was incredible.

I ordered the tofu wrap, which was just as beautiful as it was delicious. Inside was herb marinated tofu, tomato, cucumber, kale, purple slaw, and green onion hummus (holy crap I need to make that, too). It came with chips and more purple slaw on the side. I was only able to eat half of this, but the other half came in handy as a late-night snack. Laura's spicy crunchy salad was delicious, too. None of us could stop talking about how good the food was and, perhaps more importantly, how good it was making us feel. My bubbling from the previous day's cheese and grease started to subside. I just felt - I don't know, clean. And energetic. And happy.

Then it was on to the Museum, where I took about 800 photos of modern art and dinosaurs. I will take this moment to share one of my favorite exhibits:

It was just random and hilarious. But for serious, this was probably my actual favorite - and maybe all of ours.

After touring the museum, we stopped at this really cool concept food kiosk called Conflict Kitchen. The kiosk "only serves food from countries with which the United States is in conflict. Each Conflict Kitchen iteration is augmented by events, performances, and discussions that seek to expand the engagement the public has with the culture, politics, and issues at stake within the focus country." Currently, Conflict Kitchen is serving North Korean fare and while I could have tried a million things, I settled on tofu pockets:

There is no indoor seating area and the outdoors were covered in snow, so we had to eat and walk. These were a little tricky to eat (the rice filling likes to fall out of the tofu pockets), but they were very good. The sauce on top (I forget what it was) was pretty spicy! But this held me over until dinner...the main event! 

HUNGARIAN NIGHT AHHHHHH RTKTKTKTK!!!!

It took me a few tries to get through to the restaurant to make reservations, but I was finally successful and hella excited. Jozsa Corner is tucked away in Hazelwood and almost unrecognizable from the street. You walk in through the kitchen, where you are greeted by the proprietor, Alex Bodnar, and then you sit family-style in the next room, which is filled with Hungarian tchotchkes, photographs, Alex's paintings, and a large piano.

Alex in his kitchen

The kitchen

Our first course is one of my favorite things - lángos, a Hungarian fried flat bread.

This lángos was served with something new to me - lecsó , a blend of stewed tomatoes, onions, and peppers. And heaven.

The next course was something I didn't think I'd like - halászlé, which is "fisherman's stew."

I hate fish, but this was amazing. The dill and hot paprika helped balance out the flavors, and it didn't taste "fishy" at all.

Next up was haluska and homemade hot kolbasz. This was probably some of the best haluska I've ever had - I made some not too long ago and the thought of the leftovers in my freezer makes me a little nauseated. Mine was too cabbagey and buttery. This recipe was not greasy or oily at all, and it seemed like the onions and cabbage were equally represented. And don't even get me started on how much I hate spicy sausage - however, this kolbasz (similar to kielbasa, just like haluska is very similar to haluski) was magnificent (I'm running out of positive adjectives).

The next course has been one of my favorite foods since childhood: szekely gulyas (also known as Transylvania goulash). It's a goulash made with pork and sauerkraut, and I always begged my Nana to make it for me whenever I went to visit her.

Don't tell Nana, but Alex may have won this cook-off. The goulash juices went well with homemade poppy seed bread (Laura says Alex even grinds his own flour). I even brought an order home, but it's so much better fresh and hot off the stove.

One of the last courses was chicken paprikash with cucumber salad - both amazing. Fresh sour cream and fresh dill rule.

The final course - dessert - was kiflis with dried fruit and chocolate chips. There was not even a speck of powdered sugar left on the plate when we were done with it.

The food was phenomenal, but the company was even better. It was so great to have Valentine's Day dinner with my BFFF.

Late night, I noshed on the other half of my tofu wrap and some snacks from the hotel lobby - Reese's peanut butter cups and I don't even remember what else. I was clearly hell bent on undoing all of the good I did to my body at lunch.

On Saturday, we did wake up in time for breakfast...but there wasn't much to offer. I grabbed a steaming hot bowl that must have been fresh out of the dishwasher, poured myself some Cinnamon Toast Crunch (can't go wrong with that) and skim milk, which immediately warmed up with the bowl and was gross.

I can't remember the last time I had cow's milk, so it would have been weird even if it wasn't warm. We somehow learned that you could get bacon, eggs, and potatoes if you asked a grumpy man, so Tom ordered a hot breakfast and the grumpy man brought me one, too. 

Fiiiiiiine, I'll eat your bacon

Then it was on to the Strip District! 

We sampled at a few different places - I had a white chocolate macadamia biscotti and chocolate dipped macaroon at Enrico Biscotti Bakery and Cafe and I tried the cheesy garlic bread popcorn at Pittsburgh Popcorn. Then it was on to some serious eats at the highly-recommended and Andrew Zimmern-visited S & D Polish Deli.

I ordered the meatless platter, which we all shared, which came with three pierogies, haluski, and two potato pancakes. The haluski was good, although Alex's haluska is better (this one had more cabbage). The pierogies were incredible - I've never had fresh pierogies before. The potato pancakes were greasy and delicious. However, the sour cream may have stolen the spotlight - it was sweet and unlike anything I've ever tasted before. Any of my Polish or Eastern European friends know what this might be?

Our last stop was Edgar's Tacos, where I enjoyed a delicious and fresh chicken taco. 

Pittsburgh involves a lot of eating and walking. I'm okay with that.

Later that night, we went to...a MONSTER TRUCK RALLY!!! I'm not even kidding. It was hilarious. I don't have a picture of the rubbery, overpriced stadium chicken fingers and fries I ate, but I do have this video of the Gravedigger:

After our monster truck shenanigans, we stopped at Mad Mex, where I enjoyed a margarita and some fried tofu that seemed more Asian than Mexican. 

The night ended in more late night snacks, even though I swear I wasn't really hungry - peanut M&Ms and pizza Combos.

I vowed to hit the gym and start eating healthy again on Monday, and here it is, Tuesday. I am about 400 calories under my limit so I'm going to go have a beer and still not go to the gym. 

I can say with confidence that after about a week of straight bubble guts and crankiness, I will be resuming my strict veganity. :)

Day Twenty: A quick but late post

I don't know if it's the vegan diet or the garcinia cambogia, but every morning that I get on the scale, I seem to weigh about 1 lb. less. That puts me at 8 lbs. down so far! I can make my stomach flat when I suck it in and my love handles are significantly reduced and almost non-existent (that's what I always notice first). It probably helps that last night, I decided to nap while the dishwasher ran (I needed that damn Ninja again) and when I woke up, I decided that I was tired enough to just go to bed without dinner. So here's how yesterday went: 

Totals	725	123	16	34	1,284	23
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	475	27	24	26	1,016	22
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

This should be a quick post becaue I didn't eat anything new and exciting yesterday and didn't eat much, period.

For breakfast I had the same smoothie + blueberries I had for dinner the night before. Of course when I was in a rush in the morning, it came out so thick it would barely pour from the pitcher. Plus I worried about walking around work with blue lips all day. 

For lunch I had vegatable stir fry leftovers.

I forgot to eat the hummus and celery I had packed for a snack. Then I left it in my car overnight, but it's been so cold, it's probably still good. I did try some delicious Brad's Raw Leafy Kale chips that Nancy brought in and their vegan cheese satisfied my cheese craving (temporarily; I did buy Tofutti cheese and a Tofutti pizza on my way home from work).

I finally had all of the ingredients for the vegan burgers and the satay noodle salad I want to make. I was set on the vegan burgers for dinner, especially because of the tofutti cheese. Alas, the Ninja was dirty again. I was famished so I snacked on a serving of Trader Joe's pretzel flats. Then I deciced to take an hour-long 6 pm nap while the dishwasher ran. I ended up waking up around 7:30 and after 15 groggy minutes out of bed, I decided to forget it and go to bed for the night.

Day Nineteen: JK I'm hungry

As soon as I typed "day nineteen" this popped into my head, of course.

Now that I've relieved my attention deficit, if today's food consumption was ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being filet mignon, lobster tail, and sour cream and chive mashed potatoes and 1 being a rice cake, I'd say it was a bland 3 (rice cake with a schmear of peanut butter?).

I got to sleep in a little today. We had a two hour delay because it's so cold, the salt couldn't even melt the ice in the school parking lot. For breakfast I reheated a serving of pumpkin spice oatmeal - I didn't add anything this time. I remembered to eat before I left for work and took my standard coffee to go.

I had lunch at a normal-ish time (11:27 as opposed to 10:27) and I had my leftover vegetable stir fry from last night's dinner. See what I mean? Ho hum.

For my snack I had three celery stalks and some white bean hummus. That was the high point of the day. Celery! The high point! Pre-lunch I had had 3-4 kernels of caramel popcorn that Erika brought in from her cousin's popcorn company in Chicago, Let's Get Poppin. It was hands-down the best popcorn and quite possibly the best caramel anything I've ever had, but then I started to worry that it might have butter in it. OMG I want more NOWNOWNOW. Oh crap, I looked online. There is butter in it. Now I have to add another day to this experiment. Now I smell caramel in my apartment. I'm suffering from the "am I hungry or am I bored?" dilemma - especially because I'm watching a movie. I have no calories left for snacks. This is how I feel:

I went to Trader Joe's after work to pick up some stuff for this week (I realize that it's Thursday and didn't I just go shopping?). I have a few recipes I want to try from Vegetarian Times: vegan burgers and satay noodle salad (why does everything have to be called a salad?). I was really looking forward to making vegan burgers for dinner.

Well, all of the "soy cheese" at TJ's had casein in it. I was on my way home thinking "where the hell can I buy some Daiya?! Do I have to stop at Stop & Shop on my way home too?! What is a burger without cheese?!" when it hit me: I have to have a friggin' smoothie for dinner.

Nooooooooooooooo. Today was one of those days when all I can think about is dinner. I actually haven't had a day like that in a long time. I really, really, really wanted a cheeseburger.

Well, when I got home, I realized that my Ninja was in the dishwasher...no biggie, right? I opened the dishwasher and then realized that the stuff in the dishwasher was dirty and it wasn't even half full. Being lazy, I decided to run the dishwasher rather than wash the pitcher by hand, which I knew would take at least an hour (we're on, like, almost hour 2 now).

I decided to have a salad to hold me over before dinner. This wouldn't really count as dinner, since the smoothie is supposed to be a meal replacement. I put together 3 cups of baby arugula blend, a half cup of shredded red cabbage, a half cup of shredded carrots, a half cup of cooked whole wheat couscous (big mistake there at 110 calories), a quarter cup of pea shoots, 2 chopped green onions, 5 sliced Cherub (grape) tomatoes, and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (perfect ratio). I wolfed this down ravenously. Still hungry. I ate a vegan cookie. Still hungry. I preemptively logged in my smoothie (with no extra ingredients) and I have 101 calories left. I'm sitting here trying to watch a movie over the roar of the dishwasher, pondering what I can add to my smoothie to make it tolerable. I did stock up on 19 cent bananas at TJ's, but those have a lot of calories.

I'm also going to make a smoothie for breakfast tomorrow for three reasons: 1) Then I can actually enjoy my dinner tomorrow night, 2) I am proctoring the SAT on Saturday morning and I don't really want Friday night's dinner to "take effect" while I'm there, and 3) I have one midterm exam first thing tomorrow and there are 2 other teachers with me so if this happens, I should be safe:

Sorry for being gross.

Pink cup, pink robe, blue smoothie

Anyway, my smoothie is ready! I don't know if it's because I was super hungry or if it's just that good, but IT'S GOOD! Blueberries are clearly key. This time I mixed the protein, super greens, almond milk AND a teaspoon of imitation vanilla extract, a teaspoon of (real!) almond extract (another factor in this smoothie's awesomeness - I freakin' looooove almond), 3/4 cup of ice and a cup of frozen blueberries (hoping the ice would add extra volume). 

So this is where I am today:

Totals	1,161	200	21	52	1,398	50
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	39	-50	19	8	902	-5
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Not too shabby. I guess it's healthier than eating 750 calories. Well, I'd better go get ready for tomorrow...meaning I'd better get horizontal on the couch and finish this movie that's way too long for a school night. 

Day Seventeen: Snow Day Cravings

I am certainly not done eating for the day, but I'm going to post anyway. I will also probably go over my calorie limit since I have a snow day tomorrow and it took me 3 hours to make the 16-mile commute home. The roads were treacherous and terrifying and I need to stress eat and stress drink wine. I don't have anything good to drink, so I probably won't have much, anyway. It's basically just an emergency stash and I think this counts as an emergency. On the other hand, maybe I'll save the wine for tomorrow, when I'll need motivation to dig out my car (thanks again to my awesome co-worker, Andrew, for lending me a shovel! If I had to go buy one on my way home, I never would have made it!). We already have over 6 inches of snow on the ground and we are supposed to get 6 more overnight. Then it's going to get up to a whopping 15 degrees tomorrow. Yes, I'm really going to want to go outside.

For some reason, I couldn't get my act together this morning and I forgot breakfast. I did have - you guessed it - my standard coffee with almond milk.

For lunch, I packed last night's Israeli couscous, seared cauliflower, and a side of white bean hummus with a serving of Wheat Thins (16 crackers - I ended up snacking on this hummus and cracker combo last night, too). Although I picked all of the red peppers out of the couscous, I still could not stomach the cinnamon and vinegar combo. The pearl couscous seemed to get chewier overnight. To be blunt, this recipe sucks. Do not make it. I ate about a quarter of the serving of couscous, if I'm being generous (it was probably more like a tenth) and half of the cauliflower (it still tastes weirdly fishy to me). I did kill all of the white bean hummus and crackers. I really cannot rave enough about that hummus. 

When I got home about 6 hours after lunch, I was obviously still hungry. I had been craving Chinese food on my way home - egg drop soup and noodles and dumplings. Snow days just make me crave junk and comfort foods (grilled cheese and tomato soup!!!). When I went shopping over the weekend, I decided to give Dr. McDougall another try, even though I did not like the vegan tortilla soup I had earlier. This time I bought vegan pad thai noodles, and the preparation was basically the same - add the seasoning packet, fill with water to fill line, microwave for 2 minutes, cover and let sit for 4. When that was all done, I spritzed a little lime juice on top and then crushed 10 peanuts in a plastic bag with a rolling pin and sprinkled the peanut crumbs on top. In retrospect, I should have added green onion but hollllleeeeeeee shhhhhhh this was good. The portion was on the smaller size, but it tasted like legit pad thai - and no sneaky eggs this time! I'm now a full-fledged fan of Dr. McDougall. I'm debating buying his stuff by the case from his website.

After this second late lunch, I decided it was time to veg out and read in bed for a bit. At 6:00, I got up to make my smoothie. This one was no bueno.

This is the height of luxury!

Dinner: Strawberry Kale Green Smoothie

I prepared this smoothie according to the directions, with 3 tablespoons of vegan protein powder, 1 tablespoon of organic super greens, a cup of almond milk (I use original unsweetened), and 3/4 cup of ice. I didn't want to use up any more bananas, so I added a cup of kale (from the freezer) and a cup of sliced strawberries. 

Side note: The green sludge from yesterday's smoothie did not wash off the inside of the Ninja lid in the dishwasher, which completely grossed me out.

Additional side note: This came out an even darker, slimy green mud color. 

Oh, also, this was pretty gross. It definitely missed the sweetness of the banana and the vanilla. It actually tasted a bit sour, which the strawberries may have added to (they were not completely ripe yet). It's also chalky. It took me about a half hour to get through it (this seemed to make around a pint), but I got used to it as I went on. 

Without going into too much detail about my bowels, let's just say that this smoothie did what it was supposed to do and it did it rather quickly.

I followed up with the aloe, probiotic, fiber, and my multivitamin. I've noticed that I've been feeling colder since I started my vegan diet, but I am taking 100% daily value of iron every day. This could be my Raynaud's, but it's not just my fingers, toes, and nose that feel cold (although those are the worst). I thought about doing an hour of yoga (my Roku has a fitness channel with streaming exercises) but since I can't log it into Gympact and I'm so cold and achy, I think I'll settle for a long, hot shower. At least I've resisted wine so far.

Post-Shower Snack: Vegan Oatmeal Cookie and Vegan Hot Cocoa

Remember how I said I loooooove junk/comfort food when the weather is crappy? Well, hallelujah, I have found the remedy! (I'm just hoping my craving for grilled cheese and tomato soup subsides tomorrow; otherwise, I'm walking to Quick Check for bread and soup and slicing up that almond cheese, casein and all). 

I've been mulling over this recipe for a while and I decided that today was the day:

I followed the recipe to a T, except my bananas were not that ripe and therefore a little more difficult to mash. I used Shoprite organic unsweetened applesauce and mashed some more.

I then added the rest of the ingredients:

...and used a teaspoon and my hand to form 16 irregular cookies (my specialty shape) on two cookie sheets sprayed with Smart Balance cooking spray.

Then I baked them on 350 for 20 minutes. The smell was heavenly. However, I remember the same enchanting aroma when I baked oatmeal banana bites on Day One and those came out dry...so I was worried. 

While those baked, I prepared the hot chocolate: 2 tablespoons of unsweetened baking cocoa, 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of almond milk (I ended up adding more because it looked like the powder would never dissolve). I put this in the microwave for a minute and when I took it out, it was almost cakey on top - but once I stirred it, everything mixed together nicely. I put it in for another 30 seconds and sprinkled some nutmeg on top.

The final result:

Holy Bejesus. The cookie is awesome and a mere 76 calories if you make 16 irregular shapes, too. The hot cocoa is rich and spicy and not sickeningly sweet. That's 158 calories and 25 grams of sugar - a little high. Still, at 234 calories total, this is a decent snack that satisfies my cravings - better than the apple I ate in my marathon commute home. 

I can do a little better, but I can confidently say that I'm done for the day. 

Totals	1,140	192	26	46	1,882	65
Your Daily Goal	1,200	150	40	60	2,300	45
Remaining	60	-42	14	14	418	-20
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

Definitely went overboard in carbs and sugar, but it's a snow day! And I don't even want any wine. You know why? I have been so. much. less. stressed. since I stopped eating animal products. Even though (many) parts of my drive home were scary and aggravating, my heart wasn't racing or in my throat and I wasn't screaming obscenities like I typically do if I'm stuck in 45 minutes of summer Shore traffic...or doing a routine drive down any of Monmouth County's super-annoying highways. 

This feels good.

Bonus: Look at this treasure trove of vegan slow cooker recipes I found!